Just a hotel at the famed Mutare Christmas Pass Mountain would be enough to silence spiteful whites when they return to the eastern border city, claims minister of State for Manicaland, Mandi Chimene.
She made the claim recently during the official opening of the Holiday Inn Mutare which was rebranded back from African Sun Amber Hotel.
"When whites come back and ask what you have built after 35 years there should be something new to show them. We want a five star hotel at the Christmas Pass Mountain," said Chimene who was the guest speaker.
She added: "I'm declaring that you are allocated land so that you build a hotel. Let's increase our rooms because we don't want a situation where visitors go and book in Nyanga and drive back for conferences."
Chimene said she was offering five hectares of land to Holiday Inn to construct a five star hotel at the Christmas Pass, saying it was her dream to see such a structure there.
Holiday Inn is under Brainworks Limited which is a leading Mauritian registered corporate advisory firm focused on Zimbabwe and select Sub Saharan markets.
However, it is yet to be seen whether her speech was mere political gimmick as it is not the responsibility of the resident minister's office to allocate such land to investors but that of the local government department.
But, Town Clerk, Joshua Maligwa, who was also in attendance, confirmed that they have two stands measuring 3, 5 hectares and 5, 5 hectares for hotels.
"We always wanted to have a magnificent five star hotel at Christmas pass. We have two stands measuring 3, 5 and 5, 5 hectares. We are happy that Holiday Inn has come to Mutare," said Maligwa.
He added: "As far as incentives are concerned as a city we would like to promote tourism and also to show that Mutare is a potential tourism destination centre," said the town clerk.
Maligwa said they were inviting potential investors to come to Mutare to construct better hotels.
Asked whether Holiday Inn will give them a better deal, Maligwa said it was not a question of a "better deal" but that of luring investors.
"It's not a question of having a best deal but what is important is for the investors to come and build a five star hotel and thereafter we negotiate how they pay.
"As you are aware we have what we call incentives. This is a process whereby cities actually give investors opportunities to build and pay later-say after about three years that's when they start paying for the intrinsic value of the land to the council," he said.
